To accurately control the flow of light through the lens we must be able to measure how much light passes through the aperture. Now, you'd think that would be pretty straight forward. Just measure the diameter of the opening. But the laws of physics don't allow us to do that. You see, the light gathering capability of any lens is controlled not just by the aperture opening but also the focal length of the lens.
I see there is an intense desire for producing quality work that I see in everyone who is successful in photography as well as in any career. I'm referring to quality of the product you produce of course, but I am also talking about the quality of the marketing materials you use, the quality of your equipment, the quality of the people you surround yourself with, your "brand" quality, everything.
...you can always change the contrast of any given source slightly by simply changing the light from raw and sharp to soft and diffused. Light contrast is another control that we can keep in mind in our mental tool box as we approach a session. A friend of mine is a big fan of small incandescent lights added to a bride outdoors late in the day. Another way to control that is to diffuse it slightly. You’ll see a slight loss of light in terms of image quantity. But the benefit for the bride’s face in terms of image quality will really enhance your efforts and make you a hero
You don’t have to think about it very long before you realize that snuggled tightly inside your camera bag is quite an investment. And after one good trade show, you can add quite a bit of weight to that little plastic card in your wallet. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional or an enthusiast, you need to take care of your equipment.
Your digital camera produces some pretty odd file names that are not very useful in a well designed workflow. Whether you use these names or not is totally up to you. I'd suggest that you rename your files but before we do that it's a good idea to understand a little more about file names that your camera produces. There is value there - so, as they say, we don't want to "throw out the baby with the bathwater".
To define a model of primary colors you have to know something about the environment in which the model is used. It just so happens that with photography we are working in an environment of additive light. In other words, we are adding light together to made different colors. In this environment the primary colors are red, green and blue - commonly called RGB color.
As a photographer you need to remember that you are a visual storyteller. And some signs can add tremendous value to many stories. When you travel to foreign lands you’ll find that photos of signs can be an incredible way to illustrate your travels. These images can identify not only the place but often provide insight into the culture.
The statement that I make over and over is that the size of any light source is directly relative to its’ distance from the subject. As a light source gets closer to a subject it becomes larger relative to the distance. It seems pretty simple and makes sense. But what is important is how the distance affects they in which light reacts to this change in size/distance.
In the first few years of becoming a photographer I stayed away from flash outdoors because I didn’t understand how to use it. Then one day I was photographing a high school football players’ individual posed shot for a sports pack and had a “happy accident” where I accidentally increased my shutter speed on my old Hasselblad while using a Vivitar 285 speedlight on top of the prism viewfinder, set to Blue/f8. The result was magic.
Look back on the statistics today. With a society that pumps out over a trillion images a year, it’s hard to argue that they all have value. Not just economic value - that’s not the point. What is the emotional value of your images? If you’re a professional, this economic value translates into dollars - for the hobbyist, adding value to your images makes them stand out in a crowded field. You’ll win contests and get the recognition you deserve.
